Xenon Arc is focused on increasing market performance, providing technical sales and service, and driving operational efficiencies for industrial materials manufacturers. They achieve this by understanding the needs, predicting the outcomes, and managing the small-to-mid size customer base for their clients. To improve their capabilities, Xenon Arc desired an improved and automated method of comparing historical trends to customer projections and then layering on macro-economic trends to provide more accurate predictive forecasts. Additionally, there was critical need to develop a business intelligence solution to optimize the Quote-to-Order process by integrating ERP and CRM data to derive customer purchasing patterns. The metrics were integrated directly in the CRM application UI where sales personnel perform their daily work. This resulted in substantially more intelligent customer engagement.

What were the topics of importance?

Financial predictive forecasting

Quote-to-Order optimization

Customer purchasing pattern identification

Customer engagement intelligence

CRM, ERP, Sales, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Inventory Management

Business Intelligence, Operational Reporting, Data Marts

Who wrote this testimonial?

This TenPiont7 client testimonial was primarily authored by Adeline Honnas, Chief Operating Officer at Xenon Arc, with contributions from her team members and TenPoint7 consultants.

What were the challenges and opportunities?

Industrial manufactures of specialty products typically have a broad portfolio of products, complex batch-based manufacturing and supply chains, and relatively low customer to stock-keeping product ratio. Xenon Arc’s teams, technology, and tools are geared towards increasing market performance, technical sales and service, and driving operational efficiencies by understanding, predicting, and managing the small-to-mid size customers—aka “Exceptional” customers—for our specialty manufacturing clients. This Exceptional customer segment creates several unique challenges, representing a large number of diverse customers, buying a wide array of products in small quantities with a high degree of variability.

We looked to TenPoint7 to help us leverage our data rich customer relationship, product, and transactional environment to develop tools that would advance our understanding of customer purchase patterns, elevate our discussion and engagement about their specialty product needs, while improving our client’s and Xenon Arc’s supply chain, financial position, and inventory management. No easy ask!

Utilizing Xenon Arc private cloud CRM platforms, Xenon Arc team members continually gather detailed information about customers and their product needs. Team members verbally collect data such as applications, overall annual volume needed, requirements timing, plus extensive market and micro-market data. We then layer on historical data such as individual sales transactions through our typical order fulfillment process. While the data collected is rich and extensive, it lacked detailed actual-to-captured visibility at the quote level and the organizational elements needed to leverage that comparative data, tactically or strategically, effectively.

The lack of data visibility and structure, coupled with the unpredictability of the customer base led to team members spending their time using manual processes and assumptions to map customer trends, overly relying on either historical data or customer projections in order to plan for purchases effectively and make reliable financial plans. We knew the ideal outcome was to have a method of comparing historical trends to customer projections and then layering on macro-economic trends to provide more accurate predictive forecasts. This solution allows us to better communicate expectations to our clients on the buying side, have intelligent discussions with our customers on the selling side, and run our overall business.

What was the approach?

Working with TenPoint7, we appreciated their iterative, collaborative approach to working together. They worked with us from a data-led process (vs. a tech-led process), which allowed them to present us with many innovative ideas for how we could address the opportunities we identified. They dove deep into our systems and data and asked good questions to understand what we were trying to accomplish.

How much work and effort was needed?

TenPoint7 delivered a diverse team of experts located at their Ho Chi Minh City facility complemented with an Engagement Manager in the US who provided oversight and customer personal interaction. The five-person team consisted of business intelligence and data integration experts ranging from 4 to 15 years of experience. A structured approach was used consisting of four stages: Discover, Plan, Build, & Manage. In the Discover Stage, the lead data consultant and the project manager focused on clarifying the business requirements, understanding the data and business processes, including entering test data into the CRM and ERP systems to understand full data flow and system functionality. They worked closely with the Xenon Arc analyst and business experts on a daily basis to complete the assessment, refine the business requirements, clarify expected outcomes, and build the project plan.

standup meetings, the Plan stage completed the scope, and architecture, as well as the construction of an initial prototype. Progress was demonstrated frequently with working software allowing adjustments throughout. Working closely with Xenon Arc IT, the Development and Test environments were created. The CRM Quote and ERP Order data both existed in separate SQL Server databases and an existing data pipeline solution was in place already. A new data mart and dimensional data model were created to integrate the two data sources providing a solid foundation to support comparative analysis. Through multiple agile sprints in the Build phase the data mart and data pipeline work were completed and robust reports were created in Microsoft SSRS for sellers, analysts, and management to consume. Consulting companies often bypass strong testing processes. But, at TenPoint7 many of the team members worked at commercial software companies and firmly believe that an investment upfront in well tested systems will save time and money downstream. This investment in quality compelled Xenon Arc to state, “the solution was implemented three times faster than other consulting projects we’ve executed due to the quality which saved time downstream”. Both a system test and user acceptance test were executed. The system was then deployed to production and transitioned to IT for operational management following Xenon Arc’s preferred processes.

Due to the initial success, a phase 2 of the system was completed adding more reporting requirements and most importantly exposing the metrics in the CRM system UI allowing sellers to view customer buying patterns within the flow of their daily work. This phase also included the creation of a web application known as the Trend Data Management tool. The tool provided a means to develop and manage forecast calculations: capture macro-economic indicators, apply them to forecasts, and execute multiple different prediction scenarios. The data model was enhanced to store and manage the forecast data and additional reporting was created. To put the final touches on the project, TenPoint7 presented a Microsoft Power BI solution to demonstrate the potential for greater information discovery through the intuitive yet powerful data analysis platform.

About Xenon Arc

Xenon Arc provides innovative and cost-effective technology-enabled business process solutions to large industrial manufacturing companies. Founded in September 2010, Xenon Arc is dedicated to delivering a flexible and dynamic portfolio of advanced distribution services geared to extend and expand the options available to industrial manufacturers for servicing their diverse customer segments’ needs, effectively and efficiently.

Xenon Arc launched its initial business-to-business cloud based software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings, XA Direct, in July 2011. The first commercial deployment of the XA Direct offering was launched with the formation of AdipreneDirect for Xenon Arc’s first client, Chemtura, which is a global leader in the production of specialty polymeric raw materials with operations in North America, Europe, and South America. This was followed by multiple deployments of the XA Direct offering with Armacoat, QAdvantage, and E-360. Xenon Arc has extended its solutions offering by introducing XA Distribute, with the introduction Materiant in Nov 2015. Xenon Arc’s proprietary offerings of XA Direct and XA Distribute provide material producer clients with the options and tools necessary to better serve and grow their small-to-mid-size valued customer segment globally.